author
Arthur Isaac Fonda
A late-19th-century American surveyor and civil engineer, he wrote about money with the careful, analytical mindset of someone used to measuring the physical world. His best-known work, Honest Money, explores what makes a monetary system fair, stable, and trustworthy.
1 Audiobook
Honest Money
by Arthur Isaac Fonda
About the author
Arthur Isaac Fonda was an American surveyor and civil engineer who was active as a writer from the late 1800s into the early 1900s. Sources identify him as the author of Honest Money, a work first published in 1895 that examines the principles of sound currency and the problems he saw in existing monetary systems.
His writing stands out for its methodical style. Rather than approaching economics as a politician or pamphleteer, he seems to have written like an engineer—breaking down definitions, testing assumptions, and asking what conditions a “perfect” money would require.
Very little widely available biographical detail survives beyond his professional background and authorship, which gives his work an unusual appeal: the book offers the clearest picture of the man behind it. Readers interested in classic debates over value, currency, and monetary reform will find in Fonda a thoughtful and systematic voice from his era.